Poison Gas and World War Two

The
use of poison gas in World War Two was a very real fear.
Poison gas had been used in World War One and many
expected that it would be used in World War Two. As a result people in Britain
were issued with gas masks and gas mask drills
became a routine.

The gases used in World War 1 were crude
but effective. In fact, technically many of them were not gases but minute solid
particles suspended in air like the spray from an aerosol can. Regardless of
whether they were a true gas or not, they brought very great fear to the front
line. By 1939, these gases had been refined and had the
potential for being far more effective – just as fighter planes had markedly
changed between 1918 and 1939, so it was believed was a military’s ability to
deliver poison gas – and create new and more deadly versions.

The gases used to such effect in World
War One were still potential weapons in World War Two. Mustard gas had been
used by the Italians in their campaign in Abyssinia from 1935 to 1936. Chlorine
was a potential weapon but it had been overtaken in effectiveness by diphosgene
and carbonyl chloride. Both of these were choking gases that damaged the
respiratory system. Tear gases were also available – a more potent version of
it was Adamsite which not only causes the classic symptoms of tear gas but also
causes respiratory problems, vomiting and general nausea.

Mustard gas blistered the skin causing
extreme pain. It was also capable of soaking through material onto skin beneath
a uniform. A more severe version of it was Lewisite which had the same effect on
skin but also caused respiratory problems and pneumonia.

Far more deadly than these gases were
cyanide, carbon monoxide and cyanogens chloride. All of these impede the ability
of blood to absorb oxygen. Unable to gain oxygen, the body quickly shuts down.
“Death is rapid, sure and relatively painless.” (Brian Ford)

Nerve gas was also available to
governments in World War Two. One of the first to be
developed was Tabun by German scientists. Nerve gases attack the body’s
nervous system. The symptoms are nausea, vomiting, muscular twitching,
convulsions, cessation of breathing and death. Sarin and Soman were also
developed as nerve gases. Of the three nerve gases named here, Soman was the
most deadly. From inhalation, it is only a matter of seconds before a victim
goes into convulsions. The US Army Manual TM 3-215 estimated that a victim of
Soman would be dead within two minutes.

There is no doubt that most protagonists
in World War Two had stockpiles of poison gas. By 1945,
the Germans had 7,000 tons of Sarin alone – enough to kill the occupants of 30
cities the size of Paris. The Americans also had sizeable quantities of poison
gases stockpiled. Britain experimented with anthrax on remote Scottish islands
to see its impact on the animal population there. All countries that possessed
poison gas in any form also had the potential to deliver it on an enemy.

With such potency and the ability to change the
course of a battle why wasn’t poison gas used – even as a last resource? It
would appear certain that the fear of retaliation was the reason and the fear
that the enemy may well have developed a poison gas more virulent that anything
the other side had. So in a war where atomic weapons
were used, napalm, phosphorous,
unrestricted submarine warfare etc, where civilians
were seen by some as legitimate targets, no side was prepared to risk using a
weapon that had been so feared in World War One.